107 Days

On the second day of the convention, Harris and Walz returned to the campaign trail. Harris would miss Doug’s speech, which had been moved up to share the prime-time slot with Barack and Michelle Obama. He delivered “a speech full of humor, love, and […] conviction” (126), which Harris watched from Air Force Two.

On the third night of the convention, Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance, and Bill Clinton spoke. Walz had the prime-time slot, and he gave an excellent speech introducing himself to the American public, celebrating his family, and attacking Trump and Project 2025. When he thanked his family, the cameras captured his tearful children in the audience, creating a moment that touched viewers across the country.

Harris’s speech on the final night of the convention went through 27 drafts. She knew the speech was her best chance to introduce herself and present her case to the American people, and she wanted to get it right. Onstage, Harris told the stories of her Indian mother and Black Jamaican-born father, hoping to show her audience that she wasn’t so different from them. She spoke about becoming a prosecutor after learning that her best friend in high school had been molested. She told her audience that her client had always been and would always be “the people.” Harris also spoke about Gaza, knowing that how she handled the matter was key to her campaign’s success. Organizers had worried that pro-Palestinian protests outside the convention might turn violent, but they remained peaceful, and analysts later praised how Harris had navigated “the impossible strait” that was the war in Gaza (132).

After the convention, Harris and Walz toured southeastern Georgia. They spoke with groups of students, ate at local restaurants, and stayed in a Savannah hotel staffed by union members. For security reasons, Harris and her team never entered hotels through the front door. Instead, they “move[d] through the spaces reserved for workers who are rarely seen, barely noticed” (134). Harris appreciated this look behind the scenes to see how these hardworking individuals lived, and she took advantage of the opportunity to shake workers’ hands and thank them whenever possible.

August 29 marked Harris and Walz’s first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominees. The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash took place in a local soul food restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. However, Harris was “uneasy” when she saw how dark and “claustrophobic” the empty restaurant looked. She and Walz were poorly lit and seated so close together that Harris felt she should have eaten a breath mint.

Harris had been under pressure to do the interview as soon as possible after becoming a candidate, but she knew she needed to be adequately prepared, and there were many other things also demanding her attention. The interview needed to be “flawless,” but unfortunately, it wasn’t. Some answers seemed defensive and evasive, not giving viewers the authenticity they were looking for in her candidacy. For the final question, though, Bash showed Harris a photo of her young niece looking up at her on the convention stage. Harris hadn’t spoken much about the significance of being the first Black woman to become a US presidential candidate, but the photo inspired her to talk about the past and the future, acknowledging what her campaign meant to people like her niece. It was the one answer in the interview she was proud of.

After Harris became the Democratic nominee, Republican lawmakers met to caution against attacking her on the basis of race and gender. Trump, however, would not be dissuaded from his racist, misogynistic comments, and Harris endured other racial attacks, including campaign signs scribbled over with the N-word and signs at bus stops in Denver and Chicago that read: “BLACKS MUST SIT AT THE BACK OF THE BUS KAMALA’S MIGRANTS SIT IN THE FRONT” (140). However, Harris was used to these attacks, having been the first Black woman in nearly every office she ran for, and she didn’t let them rattle her.

Harris was on her way to New Hampshire when she received news that a 14-year-old boy had used a semiautomatic weapon his father had given him for Christmas to shoot 11 people at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia.

Harris is a proud gun owner, but she also pushed for the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and worked tirelessly on gun safety during her time as vice president. She believes all lawmakers should see the autopsy photos of gun violence she saw as a prosecutor so they understand what a semiautomatic weapon does to a child’s body before they vote on gun safety laws. Trump issued a statement on the Apalachee shooting, calling it the work of a “sick and deranged monster” (44), but said nothing about gun violence.

Harris’s upcoming debate with Trump was “the next big test” (145), so she took precious time away from the campaign trail to prepare. Her team set up shop in a Pittsburgh hotel, outfitting the ballroom to create a replica of ABC’s debate set. Philippe Reins, a “highly combative” political operative, played Trump, memorizing Harris’s opponent’s mannerisms and gestures and even wearing makeup to tinge his skin orange. He behaved like “a total jerk—but solely in pursuit of honing [Harris’s] performance” (140). Over a dozen staff members helped Harris refine her answers and delivery, ensuring she could distill complex topics into accessible language for everyday Americans.

Harris’s goal for the debate was to show the public that Trump was “very weak and entirely vulnerable,” a bully who acted on a narrow definition of strength.

On the second day of debate camp, Harris practiced the full-length, 90-minute debate repeatedly, ensuring that her arguments were concise enough to fit within the allotted time for each answer. After each run-through, Harris would have a cup of tea while her team critiqued her performance and developed feedback. The training tested her endurance, her ability to stay focused, and her ability to respond clearly under pressure.

By the third day of debate camp, Harris needed a break, so they scheduled a short visit to a locally owned spice shop. The spice shop reminded Harris of her mother’s cooking, making her feel “right at home” (150). She bought some of her favorite spices as gifts and to use herself before heading back to the hotel.

By the fourth day of debate camp, Harris was exhausted. She knew her team was “killing [her]” so that she would be well prepared, but she needed a break from her “bullying nemesis” (152). Harris longed for a relaxing walk with her husband, but with security to consider, the only option for a spontaneous walk was a nearby National Guard air base. Harris and Doug walked together on the National Guard’s tarmac, trailed by Secret Service and “laughing about how surreal [their] lives had become” (153).

While debating Mike Pence during the 2020 presidential campaign, Harris had watched a fly land on her opponent’s head. As it sat there, she wondered if she should do something, perhaps gesture to Pence to brush it away or tell him about the insect that had taken up residence in his hair. This distraction was an example of how anything can happen on live television; no matter how much you prepare, the unexpected can always happen.

On the day of the debate, Harris familiarized herself with ABC’s studio setup and then prepared for a final session of debate practice. To her surprise, Philippe Reines dropped his Trump persona and delivered a “comic monologue,” teasing Harris but also praising her hard work and insisting she was “radically ready” for the night’s debate.

Harris was getting dressed in her room when President Biden called. He wished her good luck, but then went on to tell her that his brother knew a group of powerbrokers in Philadelphia who weren’t going to support her because she had “been saying bad things about him” (156). He told Harris that he didn’t believe the rumor, but thought she should be aware. He went on to talk about his own debates against Trump, but Harris “was barely listening” (157). She was under immense pressure just moments before the debate began, and she was “angry and disappointed” that Biden had called to talk about himself (157).

Harris had never met Trump, so when they walked onstage for the debate, she crossed to his podium, shook his hand, and introduced herself, to her opponent’s surprise. She had no ulterior motive; it was just “the natural and polite thing to do” (157).

For 90 minutes, Trump didn’t look at Harris as he spouted lies and fear mongering, memorably claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating pets” of American citizens. Most of Harris’s responses came from her careful preparation, but there were moments when her adrenaline took over and she had to bite back a retort. At one point, she “just managed to stifle” a name she badly wanted to call Trump (160). Her intention, however, was clear enough that comedian Wanda Sykes later noted that Harris had “called the former president a ‘mutherfuckah’ to his face, without using the word” (160).

Once the debate was over, Harris felt like she had survived “a bomb blast” (160). She had no idea if she had done well or not, but she saw Doug’s smiling face and thought she must have done well.

The debate had been a victory, but there was no pause for Harris, who headed straight to New York, where she stood beside President Biden at Ground Zero for the memorial commemorating the attacks of September 11, 2001. Before the service concluded, Harris and Biden headed to Pennsylvania for a memorial commemorating Flight 93. The drive to the memorial site took them through rural countryside and “forests of Trump signs” (162). Afterward, they stopped at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department. It was full of firefighters and their families wearing MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts. Many ignored Harris and refused to shake her hand. She wanted to respect their space during the solemn memorial, but she also longed for the opportunity to connect with these Americans, to “reach across the divide and share a human moment” (163). Biden chatted with some of the men, and Harris watched in dismay as he took one of their MAGA hats and put it on his own head. A picture with a caption reading “Biden endorses Trump over Harris” (164) was soon all over the internet.

The next day, Harris had a campaign event in Charlotte. She spoke about the Affordable Care Act, after Trump had said during the debate that he had “concepts of a plan” to replace it (165). Trump, meanwhile, had announced that he would not debate Harris again.

Far-right political activist Laura Loomer had been traveling with Trump, and he “parroted” some of her racist remarks at his rallies. Her language was extreme, suggesting the White House would “smell like curry” (166) if Harris were elected and making other slurs about Harris’s Indian heritage. Even conservatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene found Loomer’s language offensive, but Trump continued to support her.

Trump’s “unfounded slander” that Haitians were eating pets in Ohio resulted in a number of bomb threats that forced lockdowns and evacuations of schools, hospitals, and public buildings. The woman who started the rumor publicly apologized and admitted her mistake, but Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric became even more intense. Harris felt he was creating chaos as “a […] strategy to distract from the fact that he had no plan to make things better for the American family” (167).

Harris was working on a speech about her proposals to fix “the broken state of US childcare” (168) when she received news that there had been another attempt on Trump’s life. Harris was relieved that the attempt had been unsuccessful and that the shooter had been apprehended.

Trump blamed this second assassination attempt on the Harris campaign for “calling him out as a threat to democracy” (169). He didn’t mention the gun laws that had allowed the assassin, a man with “numerous convictions” (169), to purchase an automatic weapon.

Harris attended a roundtable with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the few major unions that had not yet endorsed her. Harris didn’t expect to receive the endorsement; Biden had angered members when he blocked a nationwide rail strike, but she spoke clearly about her pro-labor record and the danger that Trump posed to unions.

Following Trump’s second assassination attempt, Harris had her team set up a call with him. She argues that “there are certain things that transcend politics” (172), and she was one of the very few people who could understand the position Trump was in. On the call, Harris was shocked to find Trump “amiable.” He thanked her profusely for the call and complimented the race she was running, saying it was making “it very hard for [him] to be angry at [her]” (173). He told Harris his daughter, Ivanka, was a “big fan” of Harris’s and praised Doug’s speech at the convention. Trump had called Harris “dumb, lazy, crazy, and mentally impaired,” but now he was showing “a warmer side” (173). It took Harris a minute to remember that he was “a con man,” someone who could be charming when it suited him (173).

Back in Philly and DC, Harris met with young people organizing voter registration training. She promised that she would take action on climate change, an issue important to young Americans, and reminded them that “[y]our vote is your voice” (176). After the election, Harris was “devastated” to learn that she hadn’t done as well as expected with young voters, who ultimately cast their votes based “on their perceived economic interests” (176). In such a short campaign, Harris had failed to drive home the message of how her economic policies would benefit young Americans. She isn’t sure if there is anything more she could have done to reach them, but she knows that she tried.

On September 19, Oprah Winfrey hosted the Unite for America town hall in support of Harris’s campaign. One speaker was 15-year-old Natalie Griffith, a victim of the recent shooting at Apalachee High School. Another was the family of Amber Thruman, a 28-year-old who had died of septic shock after being denied care under Georgia’s abortion ban. Harris had 15 minutes with each family before the event, hardly enough time to absorb the enormity of their stories and the loss they had endured. The town hall was attended by 400 people in person and more than 200,000 on Zoom. It was perhaps the “one event that best captured the diversity of the coalition that had come together to support [Harris]” (178).